Leading Man
by vulnerable88
Summary: Puck wants to be the leading man in Rachel's life. Now all he has to do is figure out how to get her to forgive him and get that new guy out of her life.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own any of the characters (except Jared, who's a figment of my imagination) or Glee.

Puck sat in the Glee practice room, glaring across the room at the guy and girl sitting next to each other whispering. _This isn't the way it's supposed to be_, he thought angrily. _I'm the one who's supposed to be there with her, it's ME who should be sitting there next to her, whispering in her ear, and if I hadn't messed up so badly, it would STILL be me._

If Puck's fairy godmother had come to him right then and granted him a wish, he knew exactly what he'd wish for: That Rachel would come up to him now, put a small, soft hand on his shoulder, and say "Noah" in that intimate way she had. Then he'd be able to swoop her up into his arms, kiss her like never before, and never let her go. Unfortunately for Puck, however, the chances of that happening were about the chances of Rachel suddenly getting up and saying she has decided she doesn't like singing anymore and is quitting Glee. So, no, that wasn't happening, despite how much Puck wished it would. One of the reasons that that wasn't happening was because of the guy sitting next to Rachel, a guy whose name Puck had grown to loathe ever since he'd stolen Puck's girl. _Jared_.

Stinkin' Jared had come along at just the right moment for himself, and just the wrong moment for Puck. If only everything hadn't gotten so messed up. If only he hadn't completely fallen for Rachel Berry 4 months ago. If only he hadn't gotten Quinn pregnant. If only he hadn't kept it a secret from Rachel. If only Rachel wasn't so perfect, therefore making Jared be instantly attracted to her when he'd come as the new kid to school…

_Get control of yourself, man, _Puck scolded himself. _What are you, a girl?! This Jared guy isn't going to last long. He can't. And when he messes up, you'll be there to comfort Rachel, and she'll realize that you belong together. Then, you'll be together and you'll make sure you stay together, beating up any guy who even looks at her. Yeah, that's what'll happen. _

If only Puck could believe it.

It all started way back when he had only recently joined Glee. There was just something about the way that Rachel sang that drew him to her. Even though it took him weeks to admit it to himself, the way that she sang, well, it kind of stripped away all those crazy habits that she seemed to have so many of, and just made her seem normal and talented and, as hard as this was for him to admit, pretty. When Rachel quit Glee, though, and the group was wondering about what to do, Kurt said something like, "We can't do this without Rachel," and when Mr. Schue protested, Artie sided with Kurt. That was when Puck made a big mistake. He said, "Wheelchair kid is right. That Rachel chick makes me want to light myself on fire, but she can sing."

Immediately after saying it, Puck wanted to hit himself in the head. What was he doing saying that out loud?! Who knows what people would think?! They might realize that he doesn't exactly hate Rachel anymore, and flush, there goes his reputation… He breathed a sigh of relief, though, when he realized that everyone thought he meant that as a backhanded compliment, well, the first part being an insult, and the second part being a compliment. Well, it was better than them realizing that he had kind of meant both parts as a compliment. When he said, "She makes me want to light myself on fire," it was only because he was realizing his gradually growing feelings for her, but lucky for him, nobody else interpreted it that way, so he was saved then.

Then, when the girls were singing their Halo/Sunshine mash-up, he couldn't stop staring at Rachel. After they finished, Mr. Schue, Miss Pillsbury, and the rest of the guys were clapping and hooting for them, and Puck had to jerk himself out of his daze, wiping the incredulous look off of his face before joining in with the clapping. How the heck did she get her voice to go that high without cracking?!

The last straw for him had been his dream about Rachel coming through his window, wearing a star of David necklace. It was crazy, right? Except totally not; it was a great dream and he wanted it to be a reality, where Rachel wanted him and came to _him_, smiling and looking all gorgeous. So he did something about it. After all, he was a stud, he didn't just stand by and wait for things to happen; he _made_ them happen. The next day in school, he approached Rachel with a slushie in hand, straw tucked behind his ear. When she saw him and what he was holding, she scrunched up her face in a kind of weird, but still pretty cute way. He handed her the slushie, letting her know that he was trying to make amends, then asked her if she wanted to work on a mash-up with him. He was surprised when she agreed, and then later that day, they were in her room, with her singing, him playing guitar, and then lo and behold, they were making out on her bed. It was amazing, and just what he'd been waiting for.

With her mouth on his, he didn't care that Quinn was carrying his baby. He didn't care that Quinn thought he was a Lima loser with no hope of ever being anything more. He didn't care that he knew Finn liked Rachel. He didn't care that he'd thrown slushies on her for the past year and a half. All he cared about was what was happening now and keeping it that way for as long as possible. Too soon, however, Rachel pulled away, and he was scared she'd say it was a mistake.

"I can't do this," she said. Ok, she didn't say it was a mistake, so maybe there was still some hope yet.

"Why? We're a couple of good lookin' Jews," he protested. "It's natural," and he started to move towards those delectable lips again, waiting to reclaim them.

It was then that she started babbling something about not being able to give herself to someone who wasn't brave enough to sing a solo. Yeah, right, she just didn't want to make out with anyone who wasn't Finn. Precious Finn, who all the girls liked. Yeah, Finn was his best friend, but that doesn't mean Puck couldn't feel annoyed that his friend took all the girls he liked, did it? Well, Puck wasn't going to take it this time. This time he was going to get the girl, not Finn, stupid, bumbling Finn. Puck was going to make Rachel his and Finn would see that Puck, too, could get the girl.

The following day, Puck skipped football practice to finish smoothing over all the details of the song he was going to sing to Rachel to prove to her that he could do this. He chose Sweet Caroline because of the Jewish composer, and he thought he sounded pretty darn fantastic. Hey, he never claimed to be overly modest, he was just stating the facts.

His rendition of Sweet Caroline went over pretty well with everyone, with Rachel smiling and nodding her head at him at the end. She was really the one who mattered, so he ignored the rest of the clapping. Ok, that's a lie, no he didn't. He felt pretty good when he heard how much everyone liked his singing, but he really wanted to know how Rachel felt about it. So when he asked her later what she thought, and after a bunch of stuff he can't remember, she admitted that she was proud of him and proud to walk with him. Crazily enough, that meant a lot more to him that he thought it would. Maybe that's why he took a slushie for her a few seconds later. The plus side of that was that she took him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up, getting all the slushie out of his hair and wiping him off. If he got to have her massage his hair, which felt ridiculously good, and sit on his lap like this all the time, he wouldn't mind taking a slushie for her more often. He told her that he wouldn't be at practice later, that he was choosing football, and she took it in stride. He saw the little flicker of sadness in her eyes, and that made him increasingly happy. In reality, he knew he wasn't going to go to football practice, he was going to choose Glee, but to know that Rachel wished he'd choose Glee, even when she was under the impression that he wasn't going to, comforted him.

At 3:32 that afternoon, he walked into the Glee practice room, hands in pockets, head down, and there, ready to greet him with a joyous smile, was Rachel.

"Are you sure about this, Noah?" she asked. " I mean, choosing us means that you might get a slushie in your face every day."

He looked at her, her innocent eyes shining hopefully and happily, glanced at the others in the room, and looked back the beauty standing in front of him. "Bring it," he said, and then Rachel was enveloped in his arms and it felt good, better that anything had felt for a long time. It was only when someone asked where Finn was that he noticed that his nemesis (for Rachel's heart, that is) wasn't there; he'd apparently chosen football. Puck felt bad that everyone else was disappointed, but couldn't help but be slightly relieved (ok, maybe more than slightly) that Finn wasn't going to be a contender anymore. If Finn wasn't there, Puck didn't have to worry about watching Rachel and him be the lead singers, dance with each other while staring into each other's eyes…That left more opportunity for him to be the lead, for him to be the leading man in Rachel's life.

Everything was good then. It was like things fell into place. He and Rachel were together, Finn was still on the football team, but the Gleeks didn't really associate with him. It was like now he, Puck, was the prince of Glee club, and to be honest, he liked it, he liked it a lot. Everything was going well, until he went by the field to watch football practice one day. Rachel arrived after he'd been there for 25 minutes or so.

After a little bit of mindless chit chat, she said, "I hope you choose Glee over football for me."

Puck had a really bad feeling about this. He wanted to tell her, "I did it for you and for me. I did it because I wanted to have a chance with you. I wanted to be the one who could sing and dance with you." Instead what he said was simply, "Why?"

"Because I don't think this relationship is going to work out," she said.

Puck again found himself wanting to say a lot of things to her, some of them being, "Please don't. I don't want to break up with you. Give me another chance, I'll show you that I can replace Finn in your heart." But, yet again, he found himself choosing another way of getting out of the situation, this time with a complete lie. "It's okay; I was going to break up with you anyway." Her skepticism unnerved him and he made up some excuse, but really he wanted to beg her to take him back. For once, he had felt somewhat accepted. After all, if someone who he had made fun of and tortured with slushie showers for years could accept him and see the good in him, that must mean that he really wasn't such a loser, right? He needed something or someone to tell him that, to show him that Quinn was wrong about what she said about him.

Yet, when he tried to get Rachel to see that Finn wasn't going to leave Quinn, she resolutely kept to her decision. It was only later, after Finn had come to his senses and rejoined Glee (of course being accepted back in immediately, as if almost nothing had happened….Puck couldn't imagine what would've happened if _he_ had been the one to choose football….it'd probably have taken him months to get people to look at him again. But Finn came back, brought slushies for everyone, and everything was okay again. It just wasn't _fair_.), that Puck decided he'd better approach Rachel before Finn sucked her in even more.

"Rachel? Could I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um, ok. What's up, Noah?"

He sucked in a deep breath. "Remember when we were together, but you broke up with me and I told you it was okay because I was going to break up with you, anyway? I lied."

He saw her looking at him, surprised, yet with another indescribable emotion in her eyes, as well. He continued, "I didn't want to break up; I was just too afraid to tell you. I think you should give us another chance, Rachel. I think we could be good together. If you gave us a chance, I think you'd see that we could possibly really work out. Please. Let me at least try to show you…" He trailed off, gazing hopefully at her.

"Noah, I don't know what to say. Wait, yes, I do. First of all, it takes a tremendous amount of strength to admit to cowardice; that was a really herculean thing that you just did, admitting to your fear. Second of all, well, I guess I may have been a bit hasty in breaking things off. I guess I thought that if I didn't get over Finn in those few days we were together, then it'd never happen and it was fruitless to just continue with the façade. But maybe you're right…maybe I should give us another chance." She smiled shyly at the end of her soliloquy.

While he wasn't sure about some of the stuff she said in the middle, what Puck got out of Rachel's babbling was that she thought he was a strong person (emotionally, I guess…physically was never really a question) and that she was giving him another chance. That was enough for him! He broke out in a grin.

"So, you wanna go out tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. "Pick me up at 7:00."

And that was the start of their beautiful relationship…It was the best 3 months of Puck's life, and he was ready to get it all back, if only it weren't for this stupid guy Jared getting in the way of everything.

A.N: This is a lot less dialogue than I plan on putting in in future chapters, so don't get scared away. Since I was basing this off of quotes from the show, it was annoying to try to find out the exact quotations…However, when I can make up my own dialogue, like in the future chapters, it'll be a lot easier and so there'll probably be more of it.


	2. Chapter 2

For three months, Puck had been pretty much blissfully happy. Even though his conscience sometimes made him feel guilty about the Quinn situation, he tried to push those thoughts and feelings away. He had Rachel, and truthfully, that was all he wanted. Quinn had made her decision that she wanted Finn to be known as the father and even though that really bugged him in the beginning, having Rachel in his life really took away the sting. Even if Quinn didn't believe he was anything more than a Lima loser, Rachel did. Rachel saw more in him that pretty much any other person ever had, except maybe his mother and little sister, but they didn't really count; they were related to him.

He and Rachel walked down the hall together in school, holding hands. He and Rachel went out for movies and ice cream together. He and Rachel occasionally even went out to restaurants together for dinner, although that wasn't much their scene, so it didn't happen too often. Initially, everyone had reacted very strongly to their relationship. Lots of people disapproved, some people thought it was cute (man, he hated that word…he was a _stud_, for crying out loud! Since when was anything related to him "cute"?!), and a few people were just indifferent. But, well, mainly people disapproved, particularly Quinn and Finn.

When he and Rachel first came to school together, arriving in his truck, everyone looked their way, whispering in a less-than-subtle way. Glee members openly gaped and then gave each other knowing looks, kind of like, "Well, I didn't see this coming, but it kind of makes sense…" and then they accepted them…well, everyone, that is, except for Quinn and Finn. When Quinn and Finn first saw Puck and Rachel holding hands, Finn looked back and forth between them, disbelievingly. Quinn just shook her head and scoffed. It was only later in the locker room, after football practice and after everyone else had left that things came out into the open.

"Dude, what's up with you and Rachel?" Finn asked. No skirting around the subject there, huh?

"We're together." Puck figured if he kept his answers short, sweet, and to the point, maybe the conversation would follow in the same fashion.

"What's that even mean?" Apparently no such luck with the short conversation hope.

"Well, Rachel and I found out we have, uh, some things in common, and we're together. There's not much more to it; I mean, what's hard to understand about that? You're with Quinn, and I'm with Rachel."

"Is that what this is about?! Are you trying to get me to dump Quinn for Rachel?!"

"Chill, man, why would I want that? You got your girl, now I got mine."

"Yeah, except she was _mine_ first!" Finn burst out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean she was _yours_ first? You've got Quinn, remember?! She's having _your _baby!" Or at least that's what you think. Puck didn't add that last part out loud.

"Yeah, but, but, you knew! You knew I, uh, kinda had some feelings or whatever for Rachel! What happened to the guy code? What happened to not stealing your friend's girl?"

"Hate to break it to you, man," Puck said, trying to keep his cool, "but you can't have it both ways. You can't have Quinn and keep Rachel on the side. Quinn's pregnant, you're standing by her. End of story. I'm with Rachel now. End of story."

With that, Puck left. It was bad enough that he was still paranoid that Rachel wouldn't give them a chance, would realize that her feelings for Finn weren't going away, and would leave before he had the chance to explore what he was feeling for her completely. He just _really_ wanted to know what these feelings were about! Were they just because he wanted to sleep with her, or did he really want to get to know her better, hang around with her? In some ways, it'd be easier if it were the former, but Puck had a sneaking suspicion it was the latter…Well, whatever the case was, he wanted to get to the bottom of what he was feeling, and he didn't want to be left in the lurch if she left him for Finn.

_C'mon, Puckerman, she wouldn't do that. You're a stud! Why would she leave you for Finn?_ he tried to convince himself. The only problem was that there was this louder voice in him that was saying, _Don't kid yourself, dude. That's pretty much what she did before; what's to stop her from doing it again?_

_That's it! I'm going to make sure that she doesn't do it again! I'm going to be kind and sweet (well, I'll stop throwing slushies at people; that's a start, right? She'll appreciate __**that**__!) and she'll want to get to know me better and figure out what makes me tick. This way, she'll want to get to know me better before leaving me…and maybe, before she has the chance to leave, I'll have gotten my fill of whatever it is that I need and dump her, or she'll wanna stick around._

What Puck hadn't counted on was his secret about being Quinn's baby's father coming to light. That was what had messed up everything. See, everything was actually going according to plan; he was maintain his relationship with Rachel and everything was going really well. They were both really happy. The same couldn't be said for Quinn and Finn, though. They apparently still had issues with Rachel and Puck's relationship. Puck would often catch Finn glaring at him and Rachel and Quinn often had a look on her face like she'd smelled something bad when she saw Puck and Rachel together. The thing was, Puck really needed Finn and Quinn to be getting along for everything to keep working. Otherwise, if Finn was a free agent, who knew what Rachel would do? Also, if Quinn no longer thought Finn walked on water, she may expose the secret, and then everything would come crashing down.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. Finn and Quinn broke up one day in the school hallway. Apparently they'd been having a very heated argument, during which many yells and insults were exchanged.

"I'm finished with you!" Quinn screamed.

"Yeah, well, I'm done with you, too!" Finn had responded. "But you know what? We still have to be civil to each other because of our baby!"

Anyone within earshot was now standing still, gaping. First of all, was this the end of the supercouple? Really? Second of all, Finn knew the word 'civil'?! But nobody was ready for what came out next…

"No we don't! It's not even your baby!" Quinn yelled, before gasping, realizing what she had just done.

If it hadn't been such a serious situation, it would've been comical, since the whole student body in the hall during this confrontation gasped simultaneously after Quinn's slip-up. It was as if someone had yelled, "Okay, 1, 2, 3, gasp!" Except nobody had. It was just everyone's natural reaction after the shocking statement Quinn had just made.

"Wh-wh-what do you mean it's not my baby?" Finn stuttered, shock evident in his eyes, his voice significantly softer than it had been moments before. The poor guy was obviously trying to get a grip on this situation that had seemed pretty simple until this point. His girlfriend was four months pregnant…so it had to be his baby, right? The whole hot tub thing….

"I-I-I cheated on you." Yup, and there was another unanimous gasp thing from the crowd again.

Finn started backing a few steps away, his eyes round and filled with sadness and confusion. "Who was it?"

Quinn saw Puck standing with Rachel and glanced toward them. Puck tried signaling with his eyes that this was not the time, she should not be doing this right now; actually, he was okay if she didn't really do this ever because he had a feeling his blissful, happy world would come crumbling down when it came out.

Maybe Quinn misinterpreted what he was trying to convey with his eyes. Maybe she was just tired of lying. Or maybe she just wanted to ruin his life. (Okay, he knew that last one wasn't fair and he _did_ want to take responsibility for his actions, it's just, well, everything was going so good…) Whatever the reason was, Quinn decided to let loose with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"It was Puck." Cue the unanimous gasp again. Only this time, the one Puck could hear the loudest was from Rachel, the girl who had been clutching his arm until now, but was now stepping away from him, much like Finn was doing to Quinn.

With that revelation, everyone started moving again. They realized that this was something they had to let the four deal with; meanwhile, they had their own less dramatic lives to tend to.

"Rachel, please-" Puck started, seeing Rachel edge away from him.

"Don't." Her eyes were darting back and forth, like she was trying to find something in him.

"If you'd just let me explain…Please, Rach!" his voice cracked. "It was before we even started- it was before I even joined Glee, let alone before we started hanging out or going out!! Please, Rach! Don't do this…" He was begging her now, visibly losing his cool, something he was usually pretty reticent to do.

"You're, you're, you're not the guy I thought you were." Her voice was deadly calm.

"It was before us! Before we started dating! So much before! It doesn't have anything to do with us! I wanna be with _you_, Rachel!"

"You're right. It has nothing to do with us. There is no us. There can be no us. See, I thought you were someone different. And you're not."

Puck _really_ wished she'd show some emotion. 'Course, he seemed to be doing enough for the both of them. But he wasn't going to let her go without a fight.

"I didn't cheat on you! We weren't together!" He thought maybe if he kept on reiterating this, she'd realize what he was saying, realize that they still should be together, because over the past 3 months, Puck had gotten to the bottom of his feelings. He realized that he liked being with Rachel, liked the way he felt when he was with her, liked the way she thought of him. There was no way he was ready to give that up yet, if ever.

"It's not about us!!" Rachel finally lost it; she was now yelling like she'd never yelled before. "It's about who you are! I thought I saw something in you, something so special, something which you didn't often let people see! But, I was obviously mistaken because the guy that I thought you were would NEVER have slept with his _best friend's_ girlfriend! Who even does that?!! You're not Noah, the thoughtful, deep guy I thought you were! You're _Puck!" _and she spat his nickname, a name that everyone except for her and his family called him, at him like it was curse. Then she strode off down the hall, out the double doors which led to outside.

Puck was almost positive he heard his heart break. Finn, who had stood wordlessly during this encounter, just gave him a scathing look and followed after Rachel. (Quinn had left toward the beginning of his confrontation with Rachel, presumably to go throw up in the closest bathroom). Puck let out a string of curse words and punched the nearest locker, denting it a bit, but mainly just really hurting his hand. If Rachel had been there, she'd have taken care of him, soothed his hand, soothed his heart…of course, if Rachel had been there, he probably wouldn't be punching lockers, and since it didn't look like Rachel would be near him anytime in the future, it looked like he'd be punching a LOT of lockers soon.

Puck went home, his head feeling like it was going to fall off of his shoulders with the amount of thoughts swirling around in it. He decided he just needed a good night's sleep. He'd go to school tomorrow, he'd get Rachel to listen to him somehow, she'd forgive him, and everything would be great again. Okay, he'd have to deal with Finn and Quinn and, oh, the rest of the student body, but it'd be okay as long as he had Rachel. And he would. With that in mind, he slowly drifted off, dreaming about confrontations, unanimous gasps, and cold, hard looks from girls with long shiny brown hair and fantastic voices.

He thought he had everything figured out, he just needed to put it into action. What he didn't expect was having to deal with a new student, _Jared_, who'd pretty much kill any of his plans, hopes, or dreams.

A.N.: Ok, guys, there's the second chapter. In the next chapter, we'll learn a lot more about Jared, Puck's new enemy and rival.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the morning after the fateful confrontation. Puck woke up, got dressed in a green button-down shirt that he knew Rachel liked, paired with his favorite jeans…those were for him. He had a feeling he'd need all the help he could get today. He quickly grabbed a cereal bar for breakfast, ruffled his sister Rebecca's hair, and headed out of the house, not saying much to his mother and sister; he didn't want them asking questions. He was pretty sure he couldn't answer any of their questions without a huge lump forming in his throat, so he decided to avoid that unpleasant scenario and just hightail it to school as early as possible, determined to come up with a way to win back Rachel.

When he pulled up at school, there was nobody else in the parking lot, possibly because it was an hour and twenty minutes before school started. The only person he saw was a strange guy walking into the building. He ignored it and decided to focus on what was important now: getting Rachel back. He sat in his car, put his head back against the headrest, and thought. It was like those scenes you see in the movies; you know, where the person keeps thinking of different plans, then saying, "No, that wouldn't work…but, maybe-? No, that wouldn't work either…." Well, except that there was nobody else around to hear him, so he was pretty much thinking in his head, coming up with plan after plan, then trashing all of 'em. And that's what he did for an hour, at which point other people were arriving and heading into the building, so he decided to just join them, hoping he could wing it.

He got some stuff out of his locker and right when he turned around, he saw Rachel heading toward him, determinedly not looking at him. Before he could call her name or try to get her attention, another voice called out.

"Rachel!"

"Hi, Finn. How _are _you_?_" Rachel asked, sympathy evident in her tone.

Just as Finn was about to respond, another voice called out, "Rachel?" She turned in the direction of the voice and there, walking down the hall toward her, was Miss Pillsbury.

"Good morning, Rachel. I was wondering if I could speak to you for a few minutes. It's very important," Miss Pillsbury said. "Excuse us," she said to Finn.

"But-" Finn began, then resignedly looked down when Rachel mouthed 'I'm sorry; we'll talk later' at him. He then looked back at up, saw Puck watching their interaction, and spat, "What are _you_ looking at, traitor?!" Puck decided it was time to head to class.

Puck spaced out through History, his first class of the day, trying to figure out how he could get Rachel to look at him, listen to what he has to say, and forgive him. He continued thinking about it through second, third, and fourth period, too, right until lunch. He thought maybe he could get Rachel to come to the practice room with him where they had sometimes eaten lunch, just the two of them. It wasn't the best, well thought out plan, but it was all he could come up with right then, and he wanted to put it into action as soon as possible. _C'mon, Puckerman, you got her to give you a second chance before and things were incredible. You can do this now. Just go up to her, say you want to speak with her privately, gently but firmly grab her arm and drag her to the practice room. After that, things will be easier…hopefully. _With that mental pep talk (if you could call it that), he headed to lunch, as prepared as he thought he'd ever be. What he _wasn't_ prepared for was the sight that greeted him two minutes after sitting down at a table, waiting for Rachel to arrive. She walked in alright, only she wasn't alone; there was a guy standing by her and she was animatedly talking to him, a grin on her face _and_ on his.

Puck grabbed the next kid to walk by him. "Who the _heck_ is _that_?!" he growled.

"Th-th-the new kid," the poor boy stammered.

"I could tell _that!_ What's his name?!" Puck continued growling.

"J-J-Jared, I think someone said his name is. Jared Limmer. Can you let me go now?" the kid looked he was going to have an accident. Good. If he could scare this kid then Rachel hadn't made him go completely soft; Puck could still scare people and that's what he was going to do to the new guy, Jared. He was going to scare him away from Rachel.

A.N.: I'm having fun with story, so I keep updating it. However, I probably won't be able to keep updating it at such a rapid pace. Sorry.:-(

Also, I know this chapter is significantly shorter than the other two, but hopefully the next chapter will be longer. I just wanted to write this as an intro. chapter to Jared, who you'll learn more about in the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

A.N.:To all of you who've reviewed, thank you so much! They really spur me on in terms of my writing! I hope you enjoy this latest installment…Please let me know what you think!

Puck stalked over to the laughing pair, glaring at them the whole time. He saw the second that Rachel noticed him approaching because her eyes took on a warning look, obviously telling him not to do anything else he'd regret.

_Oh, Rachel…there is NO way that I'm going to regret this. Getting this guy away from you? Yeah, that'll be the __**good**__ decision, _Puck thought.

"Puck," he said, as way of introducing himself, and stuck out his hand for the other guy to shake.

"Hey, I'm Jared," the new guy said, a smile on his face as he firmly shook Puck's hand.

This wasn't going the way that Puck intended it to. He wanted this Jared guy to be scared, intimidated of him. Instead, Puck noticed that this guy was no stranger to lifting weights, either, and wasn't as impressionable as he'd hoped he'd be. But Puck wasn't going to let that deter him; he'd just have to work all the harder to get back Rachel and get this punk away from his girl. It was okay, though, because Rachel was worth it and Puck was prepared to do whatever it took. He decided to just leave the chatty pair (even though Rachel hadn't said a word during the whole exchange, he could tell that she was not pleased and could guess what he was trying to do with the new guy) and continue this another time. He'd just switch his plan to confronting Rachel during Glee practice.

Puck sat through his next five classes thinking some more about what he'd say to Rachel, his knee bouncing through all his classes, just anticipating getting to Glee practice, putting his plan into action (but this time it'd _work_; no new guy to distract Rachel), and getting his girl back on his arm. When his last period was over, he strode out of the room, dumped his books into his locker, and walked quickly to the Glee room. If he was lucky, Rachel would be there early today and he could get everything back to the way it was supposed to be before they even started practice. Unfortunately for Puck, Rachel wasn't there early that day, so he had to wait longer than he'd have liked.

The others arrived before Rachel, though. First Kurt and Mercedes arrived, immediately followed by Mike, Matt, Artie, Santana, Quinn, and Brittany. A couple of minutes later, Finn arrived, eyes stormy, resolutely not looking at Quinn or Puck. Puck hadn't yet had a real confrontation with Finn and he knew it was going to come soon; until it came, though, Puck was good with his face the way it was. Finally, Mr. Schue came, closely followed by Rachel and- WHAT? What the heck was Jared doing here?! This was _not_ the way things were supposed to go!

"Hey, guys," Mr. Schue smiled. "I want to introduce you to the newest member of Glee, Jared Limmer. He arrived today and wanted to join Glee, so he tried out, and let me tell you guys, this guy has a _phenomenal _voice! We're going to have some more competition for lead male singer, let me tell you that!" Mr. Schue beamed at Jared who smiled back.

Everyone introduced themselves to Jared, instantly liking him it seemed. Puck didn't see why. Okay, fine, so the girls probably found his dark hair, smiling blue eyes, six-foot frame attractive. But what'd the guys see in him? Even Matt and Mike, Puck's football buddies, started chatting with the new guy eagerly. Personally, Puck thought Jared's perpetual smile reminded him of a shark, white and toothy, ready to eat you at any moment.

As the week went by, Puck learned more about Jared than he ever wanted to know. Apparently he was a Junior who'd transferred to McKinley High because his mother had gotten sick and they needed to move somewhere relatively peaceful, so they moved to Lima. Jared was actually supposed to be a Senior, but had taken off so much time to help his sick mother that he had fallen behind and had to repeat his Sophomore year, so instead of being a Senior this year, he was a Junior. He was also the reason that Miss Pillsbury had wanted to speak to Rachel; she'd wanted Rachel to be Jared's guide, show him around school, etc. Jared was also supposed to be really good at basketball, work out for an hour a day to keep in shape, be really smart and exceptionally sweet. None of these things put Puck in a good mood. Least of which was the rumor circulating around school that Jared Limmer had set his sights on none other than Rachel Berry.

It wasn't fair. Jared came to school, got Rachel as his guide, joined Glee, and everyone instantly liked him. Not only that, but he started getting a lot of male leads with Rachel as the female lead, which led many of the Gleeks to speculate about "how much chemistry the two had when they were singing to each other, gazing into each other's eyes." It made Puck want to throw up…again and again and again. This was _not_ the way things were supposed to be! He was supposed to be back together with Rachel already, not having not even spoken to her since the secret was revealed! Ok, she walked by him, accidentally knocking into his elbow, and she said, "Excuse me," but Puck didn't really count that. Yes, it was the only thing she'd said to him and the only contact he'd had with her for the past week, but still. This was _not _turning out how he had imagined it!

Every time Puck saw Rachel with Jared, there was an ache in his heart and he felt as if his stomach had just fallen to the floor. It seemed like Jared was better than Puck in every way. Jared was a few inches taller than Puck. Jared's hair was better than Puck's (granted he didn't have an awesome Mohawk like Puck did, but for some reason, all the girls kept raving about what awesome hair the new guy, _Jared_ had). Jared was friendlier than Puck. Jared was more liked than Puck. Jared's eyes were more sparkly and friendlier than Puck's. Jared had a better voice than Puck. Jared had _Rachel_ more than Puck. That last one was the real killer. He knew he was starting to sound like a broken record, but Puck couldn't help thinking that this was so far from what things were supposed to be like!

The worst part was that Puck didn't really have anyone to talk to about it. Aside from his family, nobody was really talking to him. Okay, the Gleeks were back to acknowledging his existence (which they hadn't for the first few days after Quinn had blabbed), but they made it crystal clear that they preferred Jared to Puck. For everything, including singing. And Rachel. Before he'd joined Glee, Puck had the option of talking to Finn. Granted, they'd never really had any deep heart-to-hearts (they weren't chicks, you know), but the option had always been there. Now it wasn't. After he joined Glee and started dating Rachel, for those three glorious months, he had Rachel as a listening ear, and he had taken advantage of it. He didn't spend all of his time with her spilling about his emotions and stuff, but he had let her in, more than he'd done with anyone, and Puck wished more than anything that he had that option now.

Sometimes, Puck would dream that he'd just go to Rachel and start spilling his emotions. He'd let her know all about how everything was making him feel, how much he missed her and wanted her back, how he wished he could change things. For the first few seconds of the dream, she'd listen sympathetically, almost as if she was going to put her arms around him and hug him tight, like she used to. Except that after those first few seconds of listening to him, she'd get that cold, hard look on her face and she'd harshly say, "Sorry, _Puck_, I don't need to listen to your pity party. I've got _Jared_ now." And all of a sudden, Jared would materialize, smile that shark-like smile that seemed to enchant everyone else, and take Rachel away from Puck.

These dreams/nightmares scared Puck so much that he didn't approach Rachel out of fear that that would actually happen. Puck didn't think he could handle it if he was forced to watch Jared drag Rachel away from him…with her going willingly. So he stood by and watched as Jared took his life away before his eyes. He took Puck's friends. He took Puck's school. He took Puck's solos. He took Puck's Rachel, and that was the one that hurt the most.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ok, guys, listen up. Here's the deal: we need to decide on who's going to be the lead female and male roles for sectionals," Mr. Schue announced one day a week later. "Therefore, I decided to let each one of you try out for the roles by singing a song of your choice. A celebrity judge and myself will gauge who deserves the leads and we'll go from there, ok?"

There was muttering heard around the room. Most people were sitting in pairs or little groups of three, so they were all murmuring amongst themselves about the new "healthy competition" Mr. Schue had just proposed. Puck, sitting all by himself (because who was he going to sit next to, Quinn? Yeah, right…), thought about the possibilities for himself.

"Excuse me, Mr. Schue?" Rachel piped up and Puck instantly perked up to hear what she had to say.

"Yes, Rachel?"

"Could we audition with another person, someone who would try out for the opposite role? Like Jared and I were thinking we could try out together…" and at that point, Puck tuned out again. There was a time not so long ago when Rachel would've been acting on behalf of herself and _Puck_, not Jared. He just wished that that were the case currently. Maybe then he'd be walking around like a human, instead of the zombie he'd been posing as for the past three days.

See, four days ago he'd stayed a little while after Glee to organize some stuff in his locker. Yeah, yeah, it was totally not a Puck thing to do, but he didn't really have a very vibrant social life nowadays, so he figured he might as well postpone going home for as long as possible. If he could delay the time until his mother would figure out that he didn't really socialize with anyone anymore and nobody ever came over or invited him out, he was going to procrastinate for as long as possible.

After he had finished organizing his books, papers, etc. (how did he even accumulate so much stuff? He spent the first 2 months of school hardly ever going to class! It was only after he started dating Rachel that he began to get sort of serious about school and went to his classes. Did he seriously gather this much stuff in 3 months?! What ever happened to saving the trees?), he headed toward the double doors at the end of the hall, only on the way there, he passed the Glee practice room. Just at that moment, he heard Rachel singing and he decided it was a sign from Above…this was his chance to get Rachel back! Only before he could take more than a step toward the door of the practice room, he heard another voice join in with Rachel, a male voice, namely Jared's voice. And there went Puck's hope, yup, just flew right on by, out through the doors, and up into the clouds, never to materialize.

As if he was possessed (because that's the only reason he would do what he proceeded to do), Puck looked into the little window of the door to the Glee room. There, sitting playing the piano was Rachel and standing right behind her was Jared. Then, as if Jared knew Puck was spying on them, Puck saw him inch closer and closer to Rachel, getting closer and closer to her face, until Jared's lips touched hers.

"NO! RACHEL! You can't do this!" Puck barged into the room, yelling. "You can't be with HIM! You're supposed to be with ME! I know I messed up, but please, _please_ forgive me! We can start all over! Better yet, we can pick up where we were right before everything happened! Please, just don't do this! Don't give up on me! Don't give up on _us!_"

"Noah…" Rachel said his name softly and trailed off. For 5 wonderful seconds, Puck thought she was giving in, that his impetuous actions had for some bizarre reason paid off. For those 5 glorious seconds, he thought he was going to get to hold Rachel in his arms soon, everything would go back to how it was supposed to be.

Rachel cleared her throat, glancing at Jared who was looking a bit confused…and rather miffed with Puck. "Puck," she said, this time her voice harder. But before she could proceed, he interrupted her.

"No, Rachel, _please_. You call me Noah. Only you and my mother and sister get to call me that; everyone else calls me Puck. But you, _you_ HAVE to call me Noah. It's what's right! Just like we're right. We're _right_ together!" Puck's voice betrayed him again and cracked.

"_Puck_, you shouldn't be here now. Jared and I were practicing together. Plus, don't you have to get home to watch Becca? Doesn't your mother work longer hours on Mondays? Go, go home to Becca; tell her I say hi. For right now, though, you don't belong here. Maybe you and I will speak later, ok?"

And even though her words were still breaking his heart, Puck still felt a little happier because that was the most Rachel had said to him for more than a week and not having her talk to him was slowly but surely killing him. At the beginning of the year, he would've liked nothing better than for someone to put duct tape over Rachel Berry's mouth and keep it there. Forever. But now, now all he wanted was for her to come over to him and start jabbering on about Broadway shows and musicals and how she was going to become a star because then that would mean that things were back to normal. And normal was a hundred times better than this silent treatment he was receiving. Even if normal wasn't when they were dating and it was just like at the beginning of the year when she'd tell him random facts and he didn't have the benefit of being able to stop her with a kiss or just encircle her with his arms, he'd still rather have normal than her not talking to him.

Oh, how things have changed, huh?

A.N.: Hey, guys. I know I haven't updated for a couple of days and that this isn't extraordinarily long, but I figured I'd at least insert this in here to tide you over for a little longer…

Hope you enjoyed! And don't worry, next chapter should include Puck getting proactive about getting Rachel back, not just wallowing in his pity or pondering how he should do it…or barging into rooms.


	6. Chapter 6

As Puck hurried back to his truck, trying to discard from his brain the scene he'd just witnessed, all he could think about was how much he hated Jared. Jared who, under any other circumstances, it's possible Puck would've gotten along with and actually _liked_, now represented something terrible to Puck; a reminder that Rachel was no longer his. Yeah, Puck had realized that things weren't the same anymore these past few weeks when Rachel didn't really talk to him and pretty much only hung out with Jared, but _this?_ Them _kissing_? That was so not okay and Puck was definitely not going to stand around watching them get all lovely-dovey when it should be _him_ with Rachel.

As he pulled into the driveway of his house, he was mentally going through all the ways that he could get Rachel back. He barely noticed opening the door and heading up to his room, soon finding himself on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Ok, Puckerman," he said aloud to himself. "What does Rachel like best?" Well, that was easy…music. Fine, but he couldn't just sing a song to her like he did with Sweet Caroline, and hope that she would come running back to him. He had to do something bigger, something that would show her how much he wanted and needed her back, and that he was going to do anything he could to get her back.

Puck grinned as an idea occurred to him…

uck grinned as an idea occurred to him... back.

he wanted and needed her back, and that he was going to do anything he wanted____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was really lucky for Puck that Rachel had a tree right outside her bedroom, otherwise this plan would be all that much harder to pull off. After all, getting into a girl's bedroom at 11 o'clock at night? Yeah, not so easy…Even though he knew her dads went to sleep early, he still didn't want to risk using the spare key from under the mat to get in through the front door; it felt like asking for trouble. That's why this tree seemed to be the only plausible option. Here's to hoping he still remembered how to climb trees. It couldn't be harder than playing football, right?

After a few close calls, Puck finally made it to Rachel's window; he pushed it open and went in, noticing immediately that she was absent from the room. He figured she must be in the shower and decided to wait for her while lounging on her bed. After only a couple of minutes, Rachel came out of her bathroom, wrapped only in a towel.

"Noah!" she gasped, immediately tightening her towel. "What are you doing here?!"

Puck grinned while trying to keep himself from drooling. Now he knew that she still thought of him as "Noah" and not just Puck, even though she tried to deny it.

The shock on Rachel's face quickly turned to annoyance and frustration. "Puck," she gritted her teeth, "get out of here. NOW."

"No," he said insolently, and made himself more comfortable on her bed.

"If you think that this is going to score you any points in my book, you are sorely mistaken, Puckerman," Rachel said in a firm voice.

"I don't care."

Rachel suddenly realized that she was still in only a towel. "You're such a jerk!" she cried, and grabbed her pajamas from the chair and ran back into the bathroom. She came out a minute or two later, dressed in soft cotton shorts and a tank top. "Puck, WHY are you here?"

Puck couldn't remember the last time someone had asked him a question with such a simple answer. "To get you back," he said and crossed the room, enveloped her in his arms, and placed his mouth over hers. "And to do this," he said, separating from her for a second before immediately going back to attacking her mouth.

_It has been way too long since I've done this_, Puck thought. _There is no way I'm going this long without doing this again. _He tightened his grip on Rachel as he felt her starting to resist him a bit. "Don't," he said firmly, "this is right." To his surprise, she gave in completely after he said that.

They spent a few very enjoyable minutes like that, Puck kissing her like he'd never kissed her before. At some points, he'd even separate away from her mouth to kiss the rest of her face and her neck, but he always found himself back at her lips after a few seconds. _Yes_, he thought, _yes; say so long to Jared the Jerk. Puck's back in this position and there is NO way I'm giving this up. Ever. _

However, as the saying goes, all good things come to an end and soon Rachel pushed away from him, with an unreadable expression on her face. He saw her open her mouth to say something and instantly covered it with his again, just for a few more seconds, in case his hopes and dreams were about to come crashing down. Finally, she pulled away and took a few steps back, opened her mouth, and Puck knew he was in for a lengthy monologue…


	7. Chapter 7

*A.N. Sorry that the previous chapter was formatted so weirdly, guys. I guess the line in the middle messed up all the normal formatting. I hope you still got the gist of the chapter, though! I hope this chapter will be better…*

"Noah, I don't know what in the world just came over you! Who do you think you are, marching in here and doing that?! We haven't spoken for a long time and that's the first thing you do?! Do you have a one track mind?!" Before Puck even had a chance to respond to Rachel's accusation, she kept on going, rambling on in raised voice. "What am I saying? Of course, you have a one track mind! You only think of one thing and that's why this would never work between us! I need someone with emotions, with feelings, with thoughts…You are OBVIOUSLY not that person! I don't know what I was thinking before, thinking that you were a different person! This whole situation with Quinn and the baby perfectly illustrates what I knew before, but then thought I was mistaken about, about you. It shows that you're not the sweet, caring guy who I was starting to fall for, but just a jerk, a jerk who _cheats with his best friend's girlfriend_!"

Puck saw Rachel open her mouth again and continue yelling, ranting and raving, but he didn't hear anything else she said; all he kept hearing was, "It shows that you're not the sweet, caring guy who I was starting to fall for.." He kept hearing it echo in his head over and over and over again. Rachel admitted that she was starting to fall for him. _Rachel_ admitted that _she_ was starting to _fall_ for _him_! That did it for Puck; he now knew without a doubt that he'd get Rachel back. She may be super mad at him now, but it was okay because after their kisses and Rachel's confession, there was _nothing_ Puck wouldn't do to get Rachel back.

He tuned back into her when he saw her stop for a moment and take a breath. This was his chance; don't wreck it, Puckerman.

"I love you, Rachel. I love you and I want to be with you." He saw Rachel's mouth drop open. "I know I don't deserve you and I know that I messed up really bad, but you've got to take me back, Rach, because I can't live without you. I LOVE you, and if you think that I'm going to sit by and let you replace me with Jared, then you're sorely mistaken and you really never knew me. I'm not going to let him take my place in your life, I'm not going to let him be the one to sing all the leads with you in Glee, I'm not going to let him take all my friends with Glee, and I'm DEFINITELY not going to let him be the one to kiss you every day. See, _I _plan on doing all of that, and so there's no way that he's going to be able to do that, too."

"What-?" Rachel started, but Puck interrupted her with another kiss.

"You see, Rach? I've already started…I've reclaimed your lips and there is NO way that I'm going to let this Jared dude do this to you. _I_ am the only one who gets to do this to you and with you, and anybody else who dares to will be stopped." Puck was calm but very firm. He wanted to make sure Rachel realized his stance on the situation.

"You can't jus-" Rachel was interrupted yet again, but this time not by Puck but by someone tapping on her window. Rachel looked slightly alarmed, "Since when is my room Grand Central Station at 11:30 at night?!" she asked, exasperated.

Puck hid behind her closet door, just in case. He didn't need this getting all over school tomorrow, or at least not until he was positive of the outcome. He looked as Rachel went over to her window, pulled aside the curtain, and opened up the window.

"Jared! What are you doing here?!" he heard her exclaim.

_Jared._ When Puck heard that name, all he saw was red. He didn't know what that dude was doing here, but he was _not_ supposed to be here! Jared had practically just met Rachel! What was he doing climbing up the tree to her window at 11:30?!

"I just, I just, I had to-" Puck started to snigger as he heard the other boy stutter. The guy couldn't even talk to the girl; there was no way he was real competition for Puck! "After everything that happened with Puckerman, I had to make sure, I had to, I had to do this," he heard Jared finally get out. Then there was no sound for a while and Puck had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He peered out from the closet and saw something he vowed to never see again: Jared kissing Rachel.

Puck thought he had been seeing red when Jared arrived at Rachel's window, now he knew better. Before, he had been seeing a light pink, maybe, but now? Now he was seeing red, bright, bloody, fire-engine red…


	8. Chapter 8

Puck's initial reaction to Jared barging in and kissing Rachel was to go and beat the guy up; he deserved it! But before he did that, he re-thought that plan…granted, it would make Puck feel better, but Rachel probably wouldn't like that, and there was _absolutely no way_ Puck was going to do anything to give the other guy an advantage, which is what would happen if he punched him.

See, Puck had learned a lot during his months with Rachel; he'd learned a lot about life, a lot about himself, and of course, he'd learned a lot about Rachel. He saw that she didn't really value violence, even if it meant he got to show off his strength. Unless there was a really good reason behind it, she really didn't condone beating anyone up, and since he didn't think that this scenario would fall under the category of "violence is okay in situations when you are defending someone's honor or someone else is being threatened," or whenever else violence was permissible, Puck recognized that beating Jared up would _not_ be the effective way to get Rachel back…even though he really wanted to, and he felt that his relationship with Rachel was being threatened. That last part was really important to him and was pretty much the reason why his fists were clenching and unclenching.

He just wanted everything to go back to the way they used to be!! Was that so much to ask?! It was good then…Rachel was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy; why did Quinn have to mess everything up?! Ok, that wasn't so fair; after all, he had wanted her to come clean, but he had expected more of a warning, time when he could prepare himself, spend some time with Rachel before everything would be blown up. If he had known what Quinn was going to do, he'd have stayed with her just a little longer the night before; he'd have kissed her longer and more passionately. He'd have held her in his arms longer. Anything he could have done to try to convey his feelings to her, he would've done. But no, Quinn didn't give warn him before, so he lost everything within a matter of seconds, with no chance of trying to hold onto it, appreciating the last moments. It's like that age old question: would you rather have someone be sick and know they're dying, but get to say good bye to them…or would you rather not have to deal with the worry and have the person pass away quietly and suddenly in their sleep?

Whoa, he was getting really depressing now. Meanwhile, stupid Jared was still kissing Rachel, _Puck_'s Rachel, and Puck had yet to do anything about it.

"Hey, Jared," Puck said, stepping out from the closet.

Jared pulled away from Rachel, looking very obviously thrown. "Uh, hey, Puck," he said, looking back and forth between Rachel and Noah. "What're you doing here this late?"

"That's funny," Puck said with a smirk, "I was just going to ask you the same question." Rachel looked at Puck, obviously trying to read him. He could tell that she was pleasantly surprised that he hadn't punched Jared; good, maybe it'd help remind her that he wasn't a terrible person.

"I, uh, was just coming to make sure Rachel was okay…I know she seemed kind of stressed at the end of the day, so…"Jared trailed off. "Anyway, why is it that you said you were here?"

"Rachel and I go way back. I know her better than anyone and I, too, noticed that she seemed rather tense at the end of the day, so I came to visit her and help her _relax_," Puck responded with a smirk, intentionally making Jared think something was going on between him and Rachel; after all, they _had_ kissed before Jared had shown up. Plus, with any luck, soon there _would _be something going on with Puck and Rachel…that is, if Puck had anything to say about it.

"Jared," Rachel spoke up for the first time since Puck had stepped out from his hiding spot. "Why don't you go home? I need to talk to Puck some more tonight, but I'll speak to you tomorrow morning, k?"

Jared nodded hesitantly. "We're meeting before school to practice our duet for Glee, right?" When Rachel nodded, Jared continued, "Alright; call me if you need anything, k?" Jared leaned down and kissed Rachel firmly before heading back out of her window.

"I coulda done without seeing that last display of affection," Puck said, wryly.

"That's not really up to you, is it, Puck?"

"Rachel…" Puck said softly. "Please…"

"I don't know what you want me to say!" Rachel exclaimed, exasperated.

"I want you to say that you'll give me another chance! I want you to say that you'll give _us_ another chance! I want you to start calling me Noah again all the time! I want you to kiss me again! I-" Puck paused for a second, "I just want to be with you again, Rach! Please…" he ended, pleadingly.

"Oh, Noah…" Rachel sighed. Shoot, she was back to sighing again; Puck was pretty sure that that wasn't a good sign, even though she _had_ called him Noah. "You make it seem so easy, Noah, and it's, well, it's not."

"Yes! Yes, it is! There are so many complicated things in the world, Rach, this is not one of them! I know how I feel about you, I LOVE you! Now, just say it back to me, or say that you still have really deep feelings for me and that you're willing to forgive me and get back together with me! If you say that, everything will be alright, I _know_ it will!" Puck waited impatiently for Rachel's response. He had just put it all out on the line and now it was her call. He just prayed that she felt the same way that he did and that she was willing to give them another chance.


	9. Chapter 9

"Noah," Rachel started, "I don't- I- I just don't know…I have so many conflicting emotions swirling around inside of me. I know you say it's simple, and when you put it like that, it does seem rather easy, but there are other things to consider."

"What, like _Jared_?" Puck spat, the name shooting out of his mouth like a curse.

"Yes, like Jared. He's part of this, too. He and I have gotten closer over the past few weeks, you know that. It's hard for me to just let go of that," Rachel said, looking forlorn and twirling a piece of her hair.

"Why? You let go of me 'just like that,'" Puck retorted. "I can't believe this, Rachel! I'm here, spilling out my heart to you! And you're just going on about some other dude! You've known him for like 5 seconds, and you're willing to give up on _us_ just because of _him_?!" Puck couldn't believe it; this was the most frustrating thing in the world! How the heck did he lose the most important thing in his life to a random dude whose existence he'd only known of for a few weeks?!

Rachel sighed; apparently that was one of the themes of tonight. "Oh, Noah, I do care; it's just that, well, finding out about you and Quinn, it really threw me off! I thought I knew you! I thought I knew you like nobody else did! Then, finding out what you did, it just made me feel like everybody else knew who you really are and I was just deluding myself…" Tears were starting to prick at the corners of her eyes and Puck could tell that she didn't want to cry in front of him. "I think I just need some time to think, Noah, ok? Meet me tomorrow morning in the Glee practice room and I'll let you know what I've decided, k?" She looked him the eye, wordlessly begging him to grant her request.

Puck found himself being the one to sigh this time. "Fine, I'll meet you there tomorrow. But, Rachel, in case you've forgotten anything about us, I just want to remind you about this…" and he grabbed her face, brought his lips down to hers, and gave her the most mind-blowing kiss ever. Even _he_ could feel the sparks and fireworks in the kiss. "There's _no way_ that we could have such an amazing and passionate kiss if this weren't worth salvaging, Rach."

He went over to her window and put one foot out, before turning the rest of his body around one last time. "I love you, Rachel Berry. Remember that," and with that he twisted his whole body out of the window and climbed down the tree, heading home and wondering how the heck Rachel expected him to fall asleep tonight, not knowing what tomorrow was going to bring.


	10. Chapter 10

Puck managed to get about 4 hours of sleep that night, tossing and turning and apparently dozing off every half an hour or so, only to wake up from a recurring nightmare where Rachel and Jared were making out, quickly followed by a scene where Jared proposed to Rachel and she accepted, kissing him after shouting yes. Now Puck knew he wasn't ready to get married; he was only in high school! But still that dream freaked him out to no end…And unfortunately for him, he had that dream over and over and over again during the course of the night.

He got up earlier than usual the next morning, tired and anxious, but still anticipating his meeting with Rachel. He showered, sprayed on some cologne that she'd mentioned she'd liked, put on a light blue button down shirt and a pair of jeans, and hurried out of his house to his truck, speeding off to school an hour and ten minutes early.

Upon reaching McKinley High, he parked, grabbed his bag, and speed walked into school and into the practice room. Before opening up the door, he took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare himself for any of the possible outcomes of this meeting.

"Hey, Rach, I'm he-" he started, until he saw that he wasn't actually addressing Rachel, but Jared. "What're _you_ doing here?" he questioned, rudely.

"Hello to you, too, Puck. Rachel and I are meeting here momentarily, so if you don't mind leaving…" he motioned toward the door.

Puck gave a short bark of laughter. "Well, I'm meeting Rachel here, too, so it looks like neither of us is going anywhere, huh?" He couldn't believe that he had to have one of the most important conversations of his life with stinkin' Jared Limmer present.

Jared cleared his throat. "Listen, Puck, I realize that you and Rachel have some history together and that you're having a tough time letting go. But Rachel is one of the best girls I've ever met and being with her is possibly one of the most amazing feelings in the world. I don't plan on letting that go without a fight. I just wanted to make that clear to you," he said calmly, albeit fairly emotionally.

Before Puck could reply, he heard the door close, and looked quickly in the direction of the entrance where Rachel was now standing. She was looking at Jared with an expression that Puck did NOT like…

"Jared," she said softly, clearly choked up, "that was really sweet, wow. I, I, I don't know what to say in response to that…"

"It's okay, Rachel, you don't have to say anything; I didn't even expect you to hear that. I just wanted to let Puck here know where I stand. I just wanted to let him know how I feel about you and that you're too crucial a part of my life for me to give up on," Jared responded, buttering Rachel up even more.

Puck knew that if he stood here for a minute longer, he'd do something he'd regret…well, it'd be something that would feel really REALLY good in the moment, but that after getting yelled at by Rachel, he'd probably regret. So, rather than listening to any more punching-lockers-or-better-yet-Jared moments, he decided to interrupt.

"Hey, Rachel, did you have enough time to sort everything out in your head?" Puck asked, boldly.

Rachel tore her gaze away from Jared, glancing at Puck, as if she had momentarily forgotten his presence. "Oh, right, um, yeah, Noah, I did."

Puck waited, but she didn't continue. He couldn't believe that of all the times for Rachel Berry to stop talking, it was _now_. Man, there were times when the only way he could shut her up was to kiss her, and he'd actually really appreciate that opportunity now, come to think of it. But instead of droning on and on, she was simply quiet.

"Well?" he probed. "What'd you decide?"

"Ok, I think you both should sit down for this." After Jared and Puck had plopped down onto a couple of chairs, she continued. "You have to realize that this is really hard for me…you see, what you're both essentially making me do is make a choice, choosing between you two. I know that if I choose one of you, my relationship with the other will suffer or completely disintegrate, which is why this is so hard.

"I've really grown to care for both of you. Jared, I've only known you for a little while, but we've really connected on so many levels, and I can't imagine not knowing you or being able to have long, deep conversations with you about anything and everything." Jared smiled reassuringly and encouragingly at Rachel, while Puck scowled. He didn't want to hear about how wonderful Jared was; he wanted to hear about how Rachel had realized that she couldn't do without him, _Puck_, in her life.

"Noah," Rachel continued, and Puck looked up, hopeful. "I have such strong emotions associated with you and our relationship. During the months that we dated, I realized what an amazing person you are, how sweet you are, how caring you are, and what an astounding amount of potential you have, if only you'd realize it. Then, when I found out about you and Quinn, it really threw me for a loop; I thought I had completely misread you." Puck's emotions were rising and falling like a roller coaster with Rachel's speech, but he continued to listen to her, paying attention to everything she said. "However, I realized after a lot of thinking, that that initial rejection of you was quite unfair. After all, we all make mistakes, and you're definitely entitled to yours, too. You obviously recognize the error in your actions, so who am I to continue to be your judge without giving you a fair chance?"

Puck swallowed the lump in his throat, but knew he had to ask. "So what are you saying, Rach? Who are you choosing?"

Rachel looked down, playing with a pleat on her skirt. "It's hard for me to imagine my life without either one of you, but since you guys are making me choose, I realize that only one of you could I really not live without. Only one of you makes me feel totally complete, encouraging me and all my endeavors in your own way."

Puck rapidly tried to remember if he'd ever told Rachel outright that he supported her and her career. Oh, no! What if he'd never actually told her that and now she was going to choose Jared?! Darn it!

"Therefore, as much as it pains me to have to only say one person's name, I'm going to have to choose you, Noah. _My_ Noah." She looked at him with, dare he say it, _love_ in her eyes.

Puck gaped, not quite believing that he'd actually gotten the girl. As he was processing it, he absentmindedly observed Rachel placating Jared.

"Jared, I really really care about you, and I respect you enormously. But I never quite stopped caring for and, to be frank, loving Noah. You see, instead of thinking about my actions and my feelings on the Quinn-Noah matter, I just kind of moved right to you, without letting myself really evaluate the situation. I honestly didn't mean to lead you on in the slightest, I hope you believe me about that. I think you're an amazing person and one day, you're going to find someone who's perfect for you and treats you and cares for you the way you deserve, because you really deserve the best." Rachel said, begging Jared with her eyes to believe what she saying.

Jared nodded. "I can't say I'm not hurt, Rachel, but I do understand what you're saying. But know that if you need anything, I'm here for you. I don't think I'll be able to be as close to you as we've been, even before we started kissing, and it'll take some time, I won't lie to you about that. But you have become an important part of my life and to shut you out of it without any warning, well, that wouldn't be fair to or good for you or me. Just give me some time, though, okay?" he was obviously having trouble reigning in his emotions. He picked up his bag from next to his chair, gave Rachel a small smile, nodded to Puck, and left the room.

"Rachel…" Puck began, at the same time that Rachel had started with, "Noah.."

Instead of even bothering to do the whole "you go first, no, you go first" dance, Puck decided to go for it and just drew Rachel toward himself, put his hands on her cheeks, framing her face, and kissed her.

"I love you, Rachel Berry," he said simply, pulling away from her lips for a moment.

"I love you, too, Noah Puckerman. We still have things to discuss so don't think we're just going to ignore them and-" she started to ramble, but Puck wasn't ready for that just yet. For right now, he just wanted to kiss his girlfriend, the love of his life, the only girl who believed him, and the one who had chosen him. So he did just that: he kissed her.

A.N. Okay, everyone, that's the end of this story. I hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much for all of the reviews…I hope to now go and continue/finish my other story, Subjective Emotions, and then possibly start a new one. I don't know what the title would be yet, but it'd involve a Finn-Rachel-Puck triangle, something which I haven't really delved into yet. The plot would be about Puck and Rachel being together, but Finn all of a sudden coming to school and slowly worming his way into Rachel's heart, much to Puck's chagrin. It's a little similar to this story, but it wouldn't involve Puck and Rachel breaking up right before Finn showed up. It'd be about Puck realizing that he shouldn't take Rachel for granted, and trying to prove to her and to himself and to everyone else that he's the one that belongs with Rachel. What do you think?

Please let me know your opinions on the ending of this story (Leading Man) and if you like the concept for my new story!


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